But not a big surprise. And here’s my big “I told you so.”
In 2005 Hershey’s bought Scharffen Berger chocolate in Berkeley and Joseph Schmidt chocolates here in the city. At the time it was all like “nothing’s going to change.” My reaction was, Hershey’s? Who do you think you’re kidding? We’ve heard it all before, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Now the news is that Hershey’s is closing down both factories and will “consolidate production at other facilities.” “The plant closures will affect a total of about 150 employees from both facilities.”
Same chocolates, Hershey’s claims. No change at all. Just no longer locally made. The quality will be maintained, they say. Heck they were already making most of the Scharffen Berger stuff in IL anyway. What’s the diff?
Nice way to buy the competition and co-opt it, Hershey’s.
Feh.